Bernards High hockey team puts two more on ice

BERNARDSVILLE Leaving two of the league's tougher teams in its
wake, the Bernards High School ice hockey team continued to plow
through the opposition with two more victories to stay undefeated
last week. After defeating Verona (9-2-3) by a 5-2 score on
Tuesday, Jan. 16, Bernards avenged an earlier tie by pounding
Livingston, 7-1, last Thursday.

At the Chimney Rock Arena in Bridgewater, the Mountaineers came
out strong against Verona as senior Brian Wallace scored two goals
within the first five minutes . He scored an unassisted goal at
3:19 before cashing in at 4:29 on assists by Curtis Stiles and
brother Mike Wallace.

Bernards took a 3-0 first period lead when Tom Tracy scored on a
power play assist from Brian Keary and Mike Hess at
11:03.

Keary then scored on an assist from Hess at 10:20 in the second
period, while Hess tallied the game's final goal on a Brian Wallace
assist at 1:10 in the third period.

"Coach (William) Wallace got the kids up for this rematch with a
pregame talk in the locker room," said head coach Mike Young. "It
was important to play a so lid game after our disappointing tie
against Manasquan with less than a minute to play. The team needed
to stay focused for three periods in order to defeat
Verona."

In a big game against Livingston at home last Thursday, Bernards
avenged an earlier 2-2 tie with the 7-1 win. The victory improved
Bernards' record to 12-0-2 in the B division of the American
League.

Tracy Stars

Tom Tracy turned in a tremendous game on both sides of the puck,
by scoring a hat trick while shadowing Livingston's Tyler
Reinhardt, one of the state's top scorers.

Hess helped to shadow Rinehart and hold him to only one point,
an assist, a far cry from the 11 points he scored in a game last
week.

"We shut down their number one offensive weapon," said coach
Young. "We started Tom (Tracy) on him right from the beginning and
later we put Mike Hess, another high energy player on him. We felt
we had to stop Reinhardt in order to be successful. Tom scored on
an assist from Brian Keary only eight seconds into the game, and
then scored again on Keary's assist less than a minute
later."

Bernards received a break when Reinhardt was sent to the penalty
box for tripping, a four-minute infraction, at 12:29. On his way
off the ice, Reinhardt was slapped with an additional two-minute
misconduct penalty, presumably due to something he said to the
officials.

On the ensuing power play, Hess scored off an assist by Travis
Nickerson. There turn of Reinhardt didn't slow down Bernards, which
scored two more first period goals. The first one came from Stiles
on an assist from Brian Wallace at 11:45, while the next one was
Tracy's third, again on an assist by Keary. Livingston scored on a
Jon Martin goal, assisted by Reinhardt with 1:22 left in the
period.

Any hopes by Livingston for getting back in the game were
crushed in the second period when Alex Karner (12:37, assist by
John Mitchell) and Stiles (10:57, assist by Joe Ventriglia)
scored.

"Our defense was solid," said Young. "We never left Reinhardt
alone, but even with two guys on him, he still managed to have some
scoring opportunities.

"We gave him difficult angles and our goalie, Greg Boxer, played
a great game. He made two or three saves that should have been in.
On one of them, he blanked Reinhardt on a breakaway where he
deflected a shot headed for the upper corner of the goal. The team
came out super-charged for this game and played well."

Bernards, which has already qualified for the state playoffs,
was scheduled to face Indian Hills at home yesterday. In a big
match up, the Mountaineers are scheduled to play Chatham at 5:45
p.m. today, Thursday, at the Mennen Arena. The game against Chatham
will pit coach Young against his alma mater and former coach,
veteran Harvey Cohen. Last year, Bernards lost one of its few games
to Chatham by a 7-5 score.

"They're a good organization in a strong league," said Young,
"and it should be a tough game."

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